Joyeux Noël!!!

At this time of the year, I hear a number of stories related to Christmas parties and secret Santas, and while the overall concepts certainly seem very sound, I am surprised from time to time at what can happen at such parties, and at the kind of tasteless presents Santa may bring into the office....

A Christmas tale
One of my reliable sources of information in this respect is my long-suffering friend R - she has experienced all of the above in a variety of situations, including in oil companies based in Aberdeen, and in a number of financial institutions in Edinburgh. This year has been a classic as far as I can tell, though she couldn't attend her office's Christmas party due to ill-health. However, she was sujected to not one, but 2 secret santas, and one of them really struck me as being the essence of this time of the year in the UK - a weird association of bad taste and sexual innuendo. She had bought a rather tasteful mug (or something like that) to the co-worker she had been allocated. However, when she got her present - purchased by one of her male colleagues - she was in for quite a nasty shock: her other female colleagues had been treated to delightful edible panties - she never thought things could take a different turn. And then she got that. A yellow duck, 'body massager'. Yep, you got it: a vibrator masquerading as a duck. How tasteful, how appropriate a present from a male colleague. I can imagine my friend's embarrassment, and her male colleagues' cackling laughter - truely the epitome of bad taste and vulgarity... The spirit of Christmas parties past and present?!?

Voice thugs
Anyway, moving on to the lovely tradition of Christmas carols: I went along to Greyfriars Kirk last Saturday to listen to great singing from The Edinburgh Singers. This was a first for me, as I had never been to such an event (with the exception of Bundle-of-love's Christmas extravaganzas at school in the past 4 years, but this does not really qualify as singing). So as you can imagine I was clearly anticipating the outcome (the concert), and I was not disappointed by the Choir itself, as the singers were extremely talented in particular the ladies, I have to say!!! However, I was stunned when suddenly, everyone in the church got up and it was time for a ... sing-along... Now, I would not mind if the audience had the same sort of singing voice as the choir - but sadly it was not the case. R and I broke into laughing fits as we had a stereophonic experience of sorts, trapped between 2 women who had not been selected for the choir for obvious reasons - incredibly loud noise, most certainly not in tune, was coming from their mouths at (sadly) regular intervals ... I have to say that at that precise point in time, murder thoughts entered my otherwise pure heart!

In any case, we were told afterwards by one of our accompanying UK friends that this singalong was part of a British Christmas tradition - I still fail to understand its 'raison d'être'.... Why go to a lovely concert to have the overall aesthetic pleasure ruined by thoughtless voice-thugs !!!

Glimpsed Santa
Anyway, enough of my grump: we had a lovely Christmas in France, saw Santa leaving the building rather hurriedly (some of the kids didn't actually see him, but b-o-l saw his back - I may upload a photo when I eventually get the chance!!!)

JOYEUX NOEL!!!!!!

French evening classes in 2006